Posted on 04/16/2020 4:41:20 PM PDT by pastorbillrandles
Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left. The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the merryhearted do sigh. The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth. They shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it. The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come in. There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone. In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction. ( Isaiah 24:6-12)
Biblical prophecy employs a language of metaphor. For example, Tree’s are often nations, the Sea represents the unruly and tumultuous history of mankind, Beasts also can represent nations or political alliances.
A major prophetic metaphor throughout all of scripture is the portrayal of the people of God and the people of Satan as being two distinct cities, Babylon and Jerusalem.
Perhaps this is why God chose to tell us in the primal, foundational book of the Bible, Genesis, of the invention of the city. The first murderer, Cain, built the first city, to try to mitigate the sentence passed upon him by God , to wander as a vagabond, restlessly, for slaying his brother, Abel. The city was built in defiance of that sentence, Cain would not wander nor would he be alone. Rather he would build a place to blend in, settle down and start all over again! He named the city “Enoch”, after his Son. “Enoch” means “To inaugurate”, a fresh new life, (away from God).
Isaiah is employing this metaphor in this prophecy. Babylon is a geographical city state indeed, and will come under judgment, (Isaiah 13-14). Furthermore the true malicious spiritual being who has empowered and used Babylon, to resist the people of God and God himself, namely Lucifer, is addressed also in chapter 14.
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.( Isaiah 14:12-15)
Later we hear several times in scripture, the refrain, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen… Babylon the great is fallen”., ( Revelation 18:1-3, Isaiah 22:9).
In this mini apocalypse , The City of Man, is called “The city of confusion”. or “the city of emptiness”, and it’s doom is pronounced. The inhabitants of the city, are described as “Inhabitants of the earth” in Isaiah, and as “”Those who dwell on the earth” in Luke 21, and eleven places in the Revelation.
These are the ones who subscribe to the fallen values of Babylon; rebellion or ignorance of God, Love of self, a life centered around this life only with no regard or preparation for the Life to come, no fear of God, and living for pleasure and indulgence. These are the godless or the mere pretenders to godliness , who have no real fear of God, but live only for self. Another word for them in the New Testament is, “The World”.
Divine Judgment is coming rapidly upon this world, as it did in Isaiah’s day upon the World of Israel and Judah. Isaiah’s prophecies of judgment were fulfilled first in the Assyrian Invasion, which plucked up Israel’s ten tribes, and carried them away into oblivion, never to return. Judah failed to listen to Isaiah, and eventually Idolatry brought Judgment upon her also , in the form of the Destruction of the Temple and the Exile of the Babylonian Captivity.
Both had forgotten true devotion to God. A civilization of vanity and emptiness, of love of pleasure, and exploitation of people, of defection from true Worship and the pursuit of various idols had hollowed out the souls of all but a remnant. They had been warned and warned, by Isaiah, Micaiah, Hosea, Ezekiel and finally Jeremiah, but they did not pay any attention until it was too late.
Babylon has come to represent all Human opposition to God. Babylon was Babylon, so also it was and is Egypt, Rome, Mecca and New York City, indeed everywhere in the Wold that men stan together, and imagine that in their unity, they can be independent of the Biblical God, as at Babel, and decide for themselves what would be good for mankind.
Babylon can do everything (so she imagines), everything sh can think of. Her science (and magical arts) give her the Dominion, she doesn’t need God. She has made religions that improve upon the one God has revealed, and by unity, Babylon seeks to create a much better Millenium, a brave new godless world, devoid of Repentance or faith in Jesus, one which elevates humanity. Babylon is man. She is humanism, and Babylon is globalism.
Does God divide the Nations? Babylon will bring them back together, so the “World will be as One” as John Lennon’s Satanic anthem, IMAGINE, promises. Does God create life? So also does Babylon. Does God make the Moral Law? Now, Babylon does.
Isaiah describes the psychology of the doomed city of man,
And thou saidst, I shall be a lady for ever: so that thou didst not lay these things to thy heart, neither didst remember the latter end of it. Therefore hear now this, thou that art given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children: But these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine enchantments.( Isaiah 47:7-9)
In Babylon, the city of man, the place of confusion and emptiness, soon the Music will die, the “dust of death” shall settle on her once lively streets, no more lively music to distract the troubled consciences, people who do survive shall be shut up in their houses.
But out of the ruins of the fallen Babylon, a new city arises, whose builder and maker is God himself. A remnant shall be saved out of Babylon, they shall hear the voice of Jesus and even as Babylon goes down , they shall live to praise God.
They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the Lord, they shall cry aloud from the sea. Wherefore glorify ye the Lord in the fires, even the name of the Lord God of Israel in the isles of the sea. From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous.( Isaiah 24:14-16)
Who Is the Babylon of Revelation?
by Charles S. Meek
There is universal agreement that the major theme of Revelation is the judgment upon Babylon. The disagreement is about who Babylon is, and, when her judgment takes place.
Specifically, regarding the Babylon of Revelation, consider this excerpt from the magnificent section of Revelation, chapters 18 and 19:
“Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come. . . . For in one hour she is made desolate. Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you holy apostles and prophets, for God has avenged you on her! . . . And in her was found the blood of prophets and saints, and of all who were slain on the earth. . . . For true and righteous are his judgments, because He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication; and He has avenged on her the blood of his servants shed by her. . . . Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. . . . And He has on his robe and on his thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.”
You might want to stop and read chapters 17, 18, and 19 in their entirety. Who is this great city called Babylon? We have plenty of information to identify her as none other than old covenant Jerusalem. The term GREAT CITY is used five times in Revelation: 11:8, 16:19; 17:18; 18:10, 16, 18, 19, 21. Note the context in chapter 11:
”And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which spiritually [symbolically in some versions] is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.” (Revelation 11:8)
Jesus was crucified in Jerusalem. So “the great city” (Babylon) is clearly identified! This is unmistakable. For further confirmation, we find that it is here referred to as Sodom and Egypt. The only city referred to symbolically in the Bible as Sodom is old covenant Jerusalem (Deuteronomy 32:28-33; Isaiah 1:9-10; Jeremiah 23:14, and Ezekiel 16:46-57). Paul, in 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16, stated that it was the Jews who killed Jesus, and thus was the target God’s wrath. We also note that in Revelation 18:20, 24 the apostles and prophets rejoiced at the impending judgment of Babylon for her persecution of them. No other city in history can be identified with persecuting the prophets: “It cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem” (Luke 13:33).
The blood of all the prophets in history would fall upon Jerusalem IN HIS OWN GENERATION (Matthew 23:29-39; Luke 11:47-53; 13:33-35). Compare Jesus’ words with Revelation 18:24: “And in her [Babylon] was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.” Babylon could not refer to any other city in any other time period.
It is also significant that the Babylon of Revelation is described as being a harlot (Revelation 17:1, 15; 19:2). As pointed out by author Gary DeMar, “Throughout the Bible, when Israel is unfaithful, she is characterized as a ‘harlot’ and an adulterer’ (Ezekiel 16). She played the harlot with the Egyptians and the Assyrians (Ezekiel 16:26, 28). Both Israel and Judah played the harlot with the idolatrous nations surrounding them (Jeremiah 3:6-9).”
Still more. This Babylon would be destroyed (Revelation 18:2, 8, 10, 11, 17, 19-23). The only city Jesus said would be destroyed was Jerusalem, saying that it would be “left to you desolate” (Matthew 23:38; cf. Matthew 22:1-14), and in reference to the temple “not one stone left on another” (Matthew 24:2).
Over and over the same picture emerges. It is Jerusalem in the generation of Jesus, Paul, and John that is the target of John’s revealed judgment. Jerusalem was to be judged for the specific crimes listed in Matthew 23:13-39 and Revelation 17-19. The judgment was to come upon Jerusalem SOON (Revelation 1:1-3; 22:6-20), and it did. Jerusalem was judged in the first century for her historic crimes. Only one city in the world and one time in history fits the description—the city where the Lord was slain. There is no reason to believe she will never be judged again for those crimes.
See also my article “Revelation: Its Central Theme Illuminated” here:
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